We here are mourning the death of E. Lynn Harris, one of the most significant cultural figures in the black LGBT community and modern movement. This mourning period, while sad, has served the important educational purpose of spreading Harris' powerful literary influence.
Our own Donna Payne has writes today:
Today I learned that someone very dear to the African American LGBT Community died. E. Lynn Harris was a well known author in our community and on a book tour when he had a heart attack. He blew everyone away in the early 1990’s with his first book “Invisible Life”. It chronicled the life of an African American male living a double life- one as a so-called straight man following the traditions of our black culture (going to church, attending college and family life). The other part of his double life was seeing a man on the side and keeping a cover of beautiful women around to appear straight.
E. Lynn Harris released us all from the “cultural secret” called the “down low” life. He left us over 12 books on the NY Best Seller list for over 15 years! His latest book out this week is “Basketball Jones”.
Though Harris wrote primarily about black gay men, some of his biggest fans were black women. His books became staples in black beauty salons, bookstores and book clubs.Read the full obituary on this extremely culturally important figure after the jump
"It was hard to go on a subway in places in New York or D.C. and not see some black woman reading an E. Lynn Harris novel," Boykin said.
Harris was an unlikely literary pioneer. He was a former IBM executive who decided to write about his life. He started off in 1991 selling books from the trunk of his car to African-American beauty salons and bookstores.
He eventually became one of the nation's most popular writers with an estimated 4 million of his books in print.
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